Category Archives: Karl Schroeder

Highlights:
This universe is just really great. The zero-g, full atmosphere, bubble in space, with land masses inside, moveable cities, and basically air-ship battles are all highly imaginative. I liked how the book had to be read in three dimensions with up and down to be taken seriously. I also really liked the character of Venera. She had a lot of gumption and fortitude but was also extremely feminine.

I never really connected with the main character Hayden. I thought if the beginning focused more on his character, was a little longer, and focused less on the world-building, I would have connected to his emotional plight easier. The plot wasn’t all that interesting to me. I was more interested in exploring this world than the plot and those type of books, a lot of times, don’t work for me. I also thought that conversations took odd turns at times, from one subject to the next. There weren’t many transitional scenes or established endings to conversations. It all seemed overly edited in my opinion.